State map update reveals 1800s-era mine in Springfield

Sections of an underground mine from the 1800s have been found in a residential and commercial section of Springfield.

Springfield Coal & Mine Co. No. 4 Mine operated from before 1881 — the exact startup date has been lost — to 1909, according to an update of undermined areas of the state released by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

A coal seam of 5 1/2 to 6 feet thick was mined to a depth of 224 feet in an area from MacArthur Boulevard to Fifth Street and Laurel Street to Ash Street.

“If you look at Springfield, there’s a halo of underground mines around the city,” Scott Elrick, acting head of the coal and petroleum section of the Illinois State Geological Survey, said Wednesday. “They did not allow mines under the city in the 1920s and 1930s, but the city was a lot smaller, and the city has grown out on top of that.”

The survey regularly updates maps based on data from the Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Mines and Minerals.

Elrick said the section just discovered was an extension of a mine that already had been mapped. He said geologists took another look after reports of mine-subsidence claims from the area.

State coal reports showed 20 acres were mined in 1882, but there were indications mining started before 1881.

Mine subsidence

Previous maps showed much of the city of Springfield, other than the downtown area, was built over abandoned mines. Mines are at depths of at least 125 feet.

Mine subsidence occasionally has resulted in damage to homes and buildings. But Springfield and Sangamon County are not unique in undiscovered mines. An estimated 5,500 mines have operated in the state since 1850, mostly in central and southern Illinois, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Subsidence damage to homes and buildings resulted in more than $141 million in property claims from 1979 to 2012, according to the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund. Claims averaged one per week over three decades.

Undermined areas are taken into account when developing land-use plans, said Norm Sims, executive director of the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission.

“Particularly when you’re dealing with warehouses or manufacturing that has to be a specific (building) tolerance,” Sims said.

He said he is not aware of projects that have been held up but that undermining is taken into account in development of comprehensive plans.

Commercial and residential developers, insurance companies and geologists also rely on the state maps. State law requires maps be on file with county clerks.

‘Long lost cousin’

Elrick said it is difficult to gauge the risk of mine-subsidence in a specific area but that awareness is the first defense.

Researchers regularly comb state records, libraries, historical society files and mine employee personal files in search of documents. The Department of Natural Resources estimates it has maps for less than half the mines that have operated in the state.

“It’s like doing a genealogy search,” Elrick said. “It’s like finding the long lost cousin you didn’t know you had.”

He said maps are updated as new information comes in, adding that the agency encourages submissions from the public.